Man sets date with death on 12/12/12

Ghaziabad, Dec 12 (IANS) A man in this Uttar Pradesh town decided to die by his own timetable, and "challenge God". He decided to meet his maker at 12.12.12 on 12-12-12. He jumped from atop a water tank, and fell about 80 feet to his death.

To keep his date with fate, the man, 40-year-old Krishna Pal, scaled the overhead water tank at Pratap Vihar in Ghaziabad, Delhi's suburban town in Uttar Pradesh.

Pal earlier wrote a 12-page note that he wished to determine the time of his death on his own, and would like to end his life 12 minutes after 12 p.m. on the 12th day of the 12th month of the year 2012.

He claimed that he would, by thus committing suicide, "challenge God" and take his life and death into his own hands, grabbing these "out of God's hands".

Krishna Pal claimed that he was born on 12-12-1972, a date that "God wished", although his parents had messed it up for him and mentioned his date of birth in his school certificate as 10-10-1972.

Pal made elaborate arrangements to execute his plan. Before scaling the water tank at Pratap Vihar within the police station limits of Vijay Nagar here, he had stored bricks and stones to hurl down at people who might dissuade him from his resolve.

He also carried a rope and photocopies of his 12-page note.

Krishan Pal reached the top of the water tank at 10 a.m. He tied the rope around his neck, causing alarm among people who saw him then.

The police were informed by people.

Despite police presence, Pal continued with his "programme".

He also threw down copies of the note he had written, mentioning how he had determined the time of his death, without "consulting God". He mentioned also that he would bring back "Satyug" (era of truth, the first and most significant of the four mythological eras according to Hindu belief).

When Pal was busy with his preparations, some people tried to reach the top of the water tank, but Pal hurled at them the bricks and stones he had carried with him.

Meanwhile, policemen gathered at the site to persuade the man to climb down, and desist from doing something fatal.

Pal told the policemen he was challenging God, so who were they in comparison?

Finding the pressure building on him to desist from suicide, Pal, however, wavered from his plan and jumped to his death at 11.05 a.m.

Police rushed him to the MMG Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.

Krishan Pal hailed from Narora town in Bulandshahr district. He ran a nursery, cultivating plants near NH-24.

He is survived by his wife, two daughters and a son.

"The body has been sent for post-mortem examination. The police tried to stop him, but failed. The man was a psychiatric case," Ghaziabad Superintendent of Police Shiv Shankar Singh Yadav said.